I wanted to make a post about making games from the artist's point of view. I'm sharing with you my first experience based on
Fear less! game I did a while ago.
For me it was new! I did only 8 pixel images and just a couple of animations before the game and I had no idea where to start. My teammate Greg had to explain me everything about images for the game. I think I'm just lucky to have a person who was able to give me instructions and fix my mistakes. There's no better teacher than a 'practice'. While actually making something you can understand it. I had no time to be lazy and watch movies because making game graphics was new to me and my knowledge was miserable.
For example I had no idea that each animation has to have it's own file where all frames are displayed one by one. It's called a sprite sheet. Honestly I hated making these sheets but I feel like it's very important to know how to make sprite sheets because that's how the game works.
What surrounds the character is another story. In 'Fear less!' we had scrolling background that consists of 5 layers. Each layer has it's own speed and it has to loop perfectly to have that endless effect. For me it was easier to draw because there were no animations. But I had troubles with picking colors. When I had everything finished it looked to me that colors were wrong and the game atmosphere was boring... and I re-did all those stupid trees manually by replacing each pixel with pixel of correct color. It still was boring... but when I added a fog layer and some creepy skulls it looked perfect :)
Each button, text, character, menu etc had to be designed and made. We had to start from a scratch and there were no templates. Basically when you make a game you start from a white sheet. While you make the game you think that you'll be done by tomorrow but it appears that you need to make a button or fix few pixels or there is new text... And it's hard to tell yourself that you are done because you can improve this game forever.
The coding of the game is even more important than art. You have to communicate with the programmer constantly. The code without images does noting, the sprite sheet without the code does nothing. It's very complicated process; each step should be discussed. I had to contact Greg almost every second-third day and we uploaded images to the game and saw how it worked and what should be fixed. Making of the game is mostly the endless communication between developers because it's a team work.
The best part is seeing all images that you did moving together and how you can interract with them. I think that there are too many flaws in my work but I hope that they will be fixed with time because I have to draw and to animate more to gain experience. It's really cool to play around with characters, backgrounds.
What will look good? How the girl should jump? Will it be easy? What feedback will be on this game? Will you like it? I have no idea but I think it's quite cool game. It took me some time to make it and I'm happy to see you who liked it and gave a nice shout out. I do hope to expirience this process at least one more time and now with all your feedback I know where I should concentrate more and how to deliver the message I have for you. The game is an intimate conversation between us creators and you the player. I want you to have fun and feel comfortable.
And the worst part is when people write 'stupid game', 'this is shit' etc. The truth is - there is no matter how much effort and time you put into something.. It can be one sleepless month or half of year.. It's the first minute of communication. The judgment is done! No matter who you are, no matter how much passion you put in.. This is human nature. I judge you and you judge me. Forever. I'm happy to have above average rating. Thank you for making me stronger.
Thank you for being who you are.
